First Dresden, then Frankfurt and now Berlin – for the third day in a row, climate activists are sticking themselves to the frames of world-famous paintings that hang in German museums and galleries. Their demand: “Stop the fossil madness”.
Climate activists have once again stuck to a museum picture. The picture gallery in Berlin was affected on Thursday. The State Museums confirmed the attack. The painting “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) is affected.
Two activists stuck to the frame of the painting. The alarm system was triggered. The young women had a poster of the “Last Generation” movement with them, on their T-shirts it said “Stop the fossil madness”.
Taking to Twitter, the Last Generation group related their fight against climate change to the content of the Cranach painting: “Mary, Joseph and Jesus were headed for safe haven. However, humanity is on the fast track to a deadly one
It is the third such action in three days. On Tuesday, one of the most famous paintings of the Renaissance hit the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Dresden. Two activists each taped a hand to the frame of Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna”. “The work of art itself was not damaged, only the non-historical frame,” said Anja Priewe, spokeswoman for the Dresden State Art Collections (SKD), on request. Restorers would now inspect the damage and repair it promptly. The gallery was initially closed after the incident and all visitors had to leave the building.
A day later there was a protest action in Frankfurt’s Städel. With one hand each, activists glued themselves to the frame of Nicolas Poussin’s picture “Thunderstorm with Pyramus and Thisbe”. Today, this is symbolic of the destructive course of current politics, the group “Last Generation” explained. A Städel spokeswoman confirmed that there had been a protest in the museum. “But operations continued as normal,” she said.
This year, the “last generation” climate activists have already blocked hundreds of streets nationwide, including by gluing themselves to the ground. The activists are demanding that Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Economics Minister Robert Habeck do more to expand renewable energies.
